


and a swelling rage

by TopazOwl



Category: Korean Drama, 착한 남자 | The Innocent Man
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-25
Updated: 2014-06-25
Packaged: 2018-02-06 03:56:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1843444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TopazOwl/pseuds/TopazOwl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's a monster, but wouldn't you be one too?</p>
            </blockquote>





	and a swelling rage

Does it start on the plane, Maru’s hands on her skin, searching for the monster inside of her? Does it start on the edge of a cliff, when Maru goes after her doll, his eyes dark and reptilian and full of warning?

There is before, during, and after.

 

 **Before**.  
“I will never live my life…like a loser.”

Eun Gi is twenty-three and a graduate from Harvard with a business MBA. The businessmen of Tae San call her a mad dog, because once she has sunk her teeth into something (or _someone_ ) she won’t let go until its limp in her mouth.

She fights for every scrap, jockeying to rise in her father’s impossible estimation. She learns to hide her tears, remembers never to flinch when a hand is raised.

(She’s a monster, but wouldn’t you be one too?)

How did Eun Gi become known as a mad dog? When her then-boyfriend trades their relationship for protection from the police, or as a little girl, when her father selected her to continue his legacy?

Jae Hee enters the picture and everything changes. Although Eun Gi knows about her father’s women, and there were _many_ , Jae Hee is the one to force Eun Gi’s mother from the house.

Some would say it begins when Eun Gi’s mother dies, leaving her with only a plastic doll to remember her by.

 

 **During**.  
Does it begin with a motorbike, or six years ago, when Eun Gi sees her father holding a tear-stained Jae Hee? Does Eun Gi fall in love with Maru at Aomori, or when he tries to save his little sister from the cruel truth?

Jae Hee thinks the game is between Maru and herself, but she is wrong, so wrong. Eun Gi and Maru play against each other; Jae Hee is just a pawn.

There is a tunnel and fury burning deep within her gut. There is the gas pedal beneath her foot and the knowledge that Maru and Jae Hee kept her from saying goodbye to her father. Then there is nothingness.

Next comes the construction of a new person.

Eun Gi wears borrowed clothes, lives a borrowed life. Somewhere Han Jae Hee is scowling, a furious queen overlooking a kingdom that does not belong to her. Beside her is her huntsman, he who covets her and her borrowed kingdom.

Maru builds her up so that she can destroy them ( _him_ ). He knows (better than anyone) what she will do to them ( _him_ ) when her memories return, and he does not balk at the oncoming ugliness. Eun Gi remembers, and her memories bring the bitter sting of tears.

There is an almost-wedding, and she hates that he bows out. She thinks, _wouldn’t it have been simpler if you married me? Don’t you want to use me to reach Jae Hee? Don’t you want Tae San and Jae Hee while I sit beside you, a good little doll, a penitent little dolt?_

There is a bench, there is right and wrong, past and future, present and what can never be. There is Jae Hee in Maru’s arms with tears running down her cheeks, and there is a terrible pain in Eun Gi’s chest.

Later, Eun Gi asks: “Why didn’t you get out of the way?”  
(What she really means: “You couldn’t have swerved. You knew it had to be this way. You knew that that tunnel would only be the start. You saw who I was. Jae Hee was an excuse. I am not a casualty.”)

 

 **Finally**. **After**.  
Eun Gi buys the Silvertop Bakery knowing full well that she can’t bake, but doesn’t back down from the challenge. Attorney Park’s horrified expression when she shows him the paperwork is all the incentive she needs.

Silvertop Bakery is a job for a different girl, a different life. There are kids and seagulls and locals and Maru. The ahjummas and ahjusshis do not call her a mad dog, or wonder if she was raised by monsters. The children do not run from her in fear.

She is not Eun Gi and yet she is.

This is how they meet again: Maru steps into the bakery, and Eun Gi tries not to stare expectantly. He buys a sandwich and coffee, and she hides her face when he takes his first bite sitting at the plastic table outside. He finishes the sandwich by carefully balancing its taste with the coffee, though he keeps his expression perfectly neutral.

He returns the next day, and the day after. He continues to buy sandwiches and cookies from her shop, morning, noon, and night, even though half the neighborhood knows for a fact that the only thing halfway decent is the coffee.

Maru’s memory returns, though he hides his knowledge from Eun Gi until they are sitting side-by-side on a bench. There is no Jae Hee with tears, nor the heavy weight of an empire sitting on Eun Gi’s (more than capable) shoulders. The little red box is slid over to her, his expression soft. This is how they begin again, Seo Eun Gi and Kang Maru.


End file.
